Zsa Zsa Padilla still singing sad songs

SHE CATCHES herself asking Dolphy, “Can you hear this?”

She’s been in the industry for over 30 years; Zsa Zsa Padilla feels she has nothing left to prove as a singer. She sees the scene constantly evolving, and what makes a successful Original Pilipino Music (OPM) artist now is different from what it took in the early 1980s, when her song “Kahit Na” became a hit.

Zsa Zsa is thankful that she still gets to do what she loves the most. She celebrates her musical journey with her latest album “Palagi” (PolyEast Records).

“It had been four years since I last released an album; I was raring to be back in a recording studio,” she told a small group of writers recently. “My label promised me an album with a lot of original songs—it took them a while to gather material.”

“Palagi” features eight new tracks and two remakes—Joey Albert’s “Without You” and a duet with Martin Nievera on “Maging Sino Ka Man.” The latter is one of the theme songs of “Juan de la Cruz,” a TV series that Zsa Zsa currently stars in.

In this generation of people with short attention spans, Zsa Zsa said, “It’s harder to sell albums with original songs… but it’s not impossible.”

Inspired by kids

Inspired by her singer-daughters Karylle and Zia Quizon, who both write songs, Zsa Zsa included in her album “All Cried Out,” which she wrote three years ago for Zia, who was nursing a broken heart. “I told her that everything was going to be okay and that she would eventually run out of tears,” Zsa Zsa related.

Now, the more Zsa Zsa listens to the song, the more she feels it’s about her own heartbreak when longtime partner Dolphy died last year. “Feeling ko, lahat ng depressing songs, para sa akin!” she said.

Knowing that Dolphy wouldn’t hear her new songs made recording the album an emotional undertaking, Zsa Zsa revealed. “I would ask him, ‘Can you hear this?’ And then I would cry,” said the 49-year-old star. “I’m still in mourning,” she added, “but I cry a lot less now.”